The weekend before Halloween I agreed to help Emma and Henry carve their pumpkins. Whatever face they drew on the pumpkin I would do my best to carve. Emma, as you might guess, drew a pug. I created a cute little smiley pumpkin face for Cora. Henry? Well, he scribbled all over the front of his pumpkin but I dutifully tried to carve it.

(Note to readers: don’t carve your pumpkin the weekend before Halloween. They’ll mold and cave in on themselves. Duh!)

Emma and Henry began plotting Halloween costumes months in advance, thanks to the arrival of the Costume Express catalog in August. How we got on this mailing list I have no idea, as we’ve never bought anything from them. I can’t complain, though, as it provided literally days of entertainment for the kids. They would debate the merits of the many costumes in the catalog all afternoon long, never tiring of the game.

After finally deciding on a $50 costume each, we turned to our secret weapon: my mother. She sewed many a costume for me as a kid. From Dracula to Mark from the G-Force she created some great costumes that still live in my closet at home today.

This Halloween Granma Northcutt transformed Emma into The Crimson Countess, replete in crimson cape and black robes. Henry became The Wizard with a fancy hat, a dazzling cape and a light-up wand (to go along with his orange pants and a basketball shirt.)